Live Action Trumps Cartoons in Ad Effectiveness

December 1, 2010

NEW YORK: Corporeality is more memorable than nonreality,
in Nielsen’s estimation. The audience measurement firm took a look at
live-action creatives versus animated ads in its viewing sample, and found that
folks have higher recall for the former.

“In general, live action ads are more effective than animated ads, scoring 22
percent higher in brand recall,” Nielsen said. Brand recall refers to the
percentage of TV viewers who can recall the commercial and its advertised brand
24 hours after viewing it. “This trend holds across gender and age.”

Nielsen said live-action brand recall was 27 percent stronger for females and
17 percent stronger among males than for animated ads. Adults 35 to 49
registered a 24 percent increase in live-action brand recall. The gap shrunk
among viewers aged 13 to 35, who registered an 11 percent differential.